Attorney-Client Privilege Attaches to Employee Yahoo! E-Mails Sent Through Employer's Computer
In a published decision issued on June 26, 2009 in an employment litigation case, a New Jersey appeals court held that the attorney-client privilege applies to e-mails that the employee sent to her attorney while accessing the company's computer to send the e-mails through her private Yahoo! e-mail account. ( Stengart v. Loving Care Agency Inc. , A.-35-6-08T1). With all due respect to the trial court, in my March 9, 2009 post discussing this case I expressed my opinion that the trial judge's decision was incorrect and predicted that an interlocutory appeal would be forthcoming because of the far-reaching effects of the trial court's decision. Both predictions turned out to be accurate. For the convenience of our readers, although I extensively commented on the facts of this case in my March 9, 2009 post, the brief facts of the case are as follows: The plaintiff was the executive director of nursing at Loving Care Inc. ("Loving Care"). During her employment, Lo...